Kevin Workman knows bass. The 2016 Hobie Fishing Top Gun and the founder of Corn Coast Kayak Anglers regularly places highly at the sport’s toughest contests, including the Hobie Bass Open.
He shared how he rigs his favorite ride, a Hobie Mirage Pro Angler 14, to hunt bass in the crucible of competition.
“My rule is simplicity and efficiency,” he says. That’s why the brain of his boat – a Lowrance Elite 5 fishfinder / GPS unit – is powered by a high power 12-amp battery. “It can run for a day or two. I don’t have to worry about it dying,” he adds. Kevin keeps the battery in a waterproof box.
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As most tournament bass anglers do, Kevin launches with a wide variety of tackle. There’s something for every condition he anticipates encountering. Yet unlike many, he’s whittled the selection down to just four tackle flats organized so he can change presentations quickly, making the most of his time on the water. “I hand-select my lures for the day of fishing. I don’t carry a bunch of extra tackle. It amounts to excess weight,” Kevin says.
He stashes his tackle flats under his PA 14’s Vantage Seat, or in the black storage box he keeps aft. A net’s back there too. He keeps it in a rod holder where he can grab it quickly.
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His bump board – a tournament necessity – sits right in the cockpit next to his PA’s in-hull horizontal rod holders. “I keep it on a leash so I don’t have to worry about it,” he says.
The Pro Angler comes with a half-dozen horizontal rod holders and another molded-in deuce behind the seat. It’s the perfect number for Kevin, who fishes tournaments with eight rods.
Tools such as his pliers are kept close at hand in the cockpit mesh storage pockets. His tournament control device – lose it and you’re out of the game – is safely tucked away in the mesh pocket beneath his PA’s rectangular hatch.
Kevin is a talented filmmaker. That makes his camera mount essential equipment. It’s mounted on the H-Rail on a clamp mount. It takes just a moment to move it for a new camera angle.
